WHICH SPECIES ARE DESCRIBED FIRST - THE CASE OF NORTH-AMERICAN BUTTERFLIES

Within a taxon, some species are described before others, and some have greater numbers of synonyms. Here, we explore the correlates of date of description and numbers of synonyms for a well-known group of species, the butterflies of North America. Larger and more widespread species were described earlier. Species which were described earlier and are more widespread have greater numbers of associated synonyms. Development of an understanding both of patterns of non-random description and of their determinants is particularly important as increasing use is made of historical (museum) collections of specimens to document spatial patterns in the occurrence of individual species and levels of species richness, and large scale patterns in species-level traits. Exploration of patterns of description of well-known groups provides a point of reference for assessing potential difficulties with those which are more poorly known.